ESP-Disk’ to release collaboration from Mat Walerian, Matthew Shipp, and Hamid Drake

Okuden sounds like a place, but I’ll be buggered if I can find it anywhere on Google Maps.

This is probably because the Okuden I’m looking for isn’t so much a place as a state of mind, man. A place where the heaviest of the heavy current giants of jazz convene to lay out some of the most epic jams.

Last year, ESP-Disk’ released the Live at Okuden recording of Polish reed player Mat Walerian and American key twinkler Matthew Shipp, which garnered plenty of critical laudits and so, because even in Okuden if it ain’t broke you don’t fix it, ESP-Disk’ are now preparing to release chapter two of the Walerian/Shipp fest on April 29 with a double album called Jungle.

Jungle comes from the same 2012 series of shows that spawned Live at Okuden and sees the duo rope in Hamid Drake on percussion. William Parker’s liner notes describe the recording as:

[L]iterary music, epic little bouts of brilliance. That expands and stretches across what you might call instant reality, the lining or other side of the cosmic blanket where ordinary yet extraordinary people live; it swings and is balanced, it knows where to stop and begin again. It Bees and it Bops, it is and isn’t at the same time, but the main thing is they don’t scream - not that the scream and the shout are bad. It’s that you have to play inside your destiny rather than a musical style. It’s all about playing free instead of asking others for freedom, so I celebrate Drake, Shipp, and Walerian for choosing life over music. Choosing intuition over tradition.

So meet you at Okuden then?

Jungle
CD 1
01. Shrine
02. Teleport
03. Gentle Giants
04. 123 Sylvester 230 CE
05. Ultimate Insurance
06. Good Trip Is a Safe Trip
07. Perfect Joint
08. Watch Your Path

CD 2

01. Gate
02. One For
03. Coach on da Mic
04. Tiger
05. Sit Back, Relax and Watch

More about: Hamid Drake, Mat Walerian, Matthew Shipp